Tag Management Tool

Tag management is an important element of any Continuous Improvement strategy. Most businesses can reap significant and immediate benefits from a conscious and structured tag management approach, e.g. supported by our Tag Management Tool.

Tagging is closely related to the 5S workplace organisation methodology and strategy, which was developed during the 1950s by Japanese business management innovators. Tagging is part of the first S in 5S ("sort", "set in order", "shine", "standardise", and "sustain"),

The objective of tagging is to physically mark e.g. unnecessary, defective or unsafe items in the workplace and remove them to a designated holding area for further assessment. Our Tag Management Tool facilitates and streamlines the tagging process, as it´s possible to directly grasp the tag in the Tag register.

Our Tag Management Tool eliminates the need for keeping different manual tag registers, however, it does far more than that.

Physical tagging can rarely be abandoned altogether, at least not in production environments. Nevertheless, our software replaces most of the administrative routines associated with the process of tagging.

Any organisation that wants to implement tagging as effectively and efficiently as possible can benefit significantly from using our Tag Management Tool for handling processes such as tag registration, preparation of reports, statistics, visualisation, and benchmarking. The following paragraphs contain a brief presentation of our Tag Management Tool in order to highlight the features and benefits of our software.

How does it work?

The software basically consists of three elements:

- A user interface for data entry

- A tag database for data storage (also called tag register)

- A deployment interface for data presentation

The figure above illustrates the data flow: Tag data is entered via the user interface and stored in the tag database. The deployment interface presents graphs and visualisations based on data in the tag database. There are several data views for e.g. 5S / Kaizen teams, basic users, department managers, and executive staff. Both database and interfaces are updated in real time, i.e. there is no information delay or need for running batch jobs to update current status.

The fine art of tagging

The YouTube video below explains how tagging works, seen from a "workshop floor perspective":

Tag types

Our software comes with six different tag types: Improvement tags, safety tags, 5S production tags, maintenance tags, defect & rework tags, and office tags. As part of the initial implementation, we customise tag names and colours to suit the individual client's current practice. (As an example, some of our clients prefer the term opportunity tags rather than improvement tags.)

It is of course also possible to disable certain tag types, if that is relevant. The illustration below shows the user interface for a production implementation, where office tags have been removed from the input screen:

We also offer training to local system administrators and other key users, so that they can subsequently maintain the various configuration options in the Tag Management Tool.

Is it only for manufacturing companies?

The short answer is no. Most of the tag types above that should be taken into consideration are equally relevant to businesses within e.g. the retail, service, construction, and public sectors.

Service tags, safety tags, maintenance tags, and (obviously) office tags are every bit as applicable in an administrative environment as they are in a production facility.